Marla Bradley, Website & Graphic Designer.
Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
© 2023 North Country Website Design.
Low Cost, High Quality Websites
Terminology of
Modern
Websites
WordPress
WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide.
WordPress allows customers to update their website
on their own without the help of a website developer.
WordPress is a content management system (CMS)
which allows you to add, remove or update content
on your website without high level technical training.
I find WordPress great for Blog websites.
A WordPress theme makes WordPress look like a
website. There are thousands of themes available —
some free, some paid. Most WordPress themes re-
quire some customization to get them to match your
company’s brand. But using a theme is WAY better
than starting from scratch like we had to do in the
olden days (early to mid 2000s). WordPress themes
are one of the main reasons you can build a custom,
high-quality website for a fraction of what websites
used to cost.
A WordPress plugin gives your site functionality.
Plugins are like apps on your phone and there are
tens of thousands of WordPress plug-ins to choose
from. There are plug-ins for contact forms, image gal-
leries, site security, online shopping carts — pretty
much anything you can think of.
WordPress can have many security issues. Because
WordPress has sign-ons available to update the web-
site, it can get hacked much easier than a site the has
no sign-ons available. WordPress also has many dif-
ferent plug-ins available from many different compa-
nies. These plug-ins can potentially have security
issues. For these reasons, and many others, you must
take extra steps to secure and backup WordPress
sites.
For NCWD to properly secure and backup your
WordPress site, we charge $8 a month. For more in-
formation on WordPress sites, click here.
Hosting (aka Webhosting)
To have a website the internet, it needs to be hosted
on a web server. Kind of like if you want to build a
house, you need a piece of land to build your house
on. Examples of website hosting providers are
GoDaddy and BlueHost. NCWD uses IONOS.
NCWD charges $13.00 per month for webhosting. For
more information, click here.
Domain Name (aka URL)
Amazon.com, CNN.com and
NorthCountryWebsiteDesign.com are all examples of
domain names. Behind the scenes, every website is
identified by an IP address which is a long string of
numbers like 143.398.884.342. But who can remem-
ber all those digits? Therefore, a domain name is
linked to each IP address because it’s easier to use
words instead of numbers to identify a website. There
are many types of domain extensions, not just .com,
.net, and .org. There are so many to choose from!
Some of the popular ones are .biz, .online, .website,
and .site. Some other fun ones are .fitness, .dance,
.bar, and so much more!
Each domain extension costs a different amount.
Through NCWD .com domains cost $30 per year. A
.bar domain costs $115 per year. The other domain
extensions costs something in between. For more in-
formation, click here.
“DOMAIN NAME 101: WHAT DO THE VARIOUS
DOMAIN EXTENSIONS MEAN?“
”Wikipedia’s “List of Internet top-level domains”
Domain Registrar
Just like you get the license plate for your car from the
Department of Motor Vehicles, you get your domain
name from a domain registrar. There are numerous
domain registrars online. We use IONOS.
DNS
DNS is an acronym for domain name server. They’re
the phone book of the internet. Humans use domain
names to describe websites rather than using IP ad-
dresses. When you type a domain name into a web
browser, your internet service provider accesses one
of many domain name servers located around the
world to quickly lookup the corresponding IP address
associated with the domain name, then routes you to
the website you requested.
HTML
HTML is an acronym for hypertext markup language,
and it’s the standard language for creating websites
and web pages. It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee
(known as the inventor of the world wide web) in
1991.
CSS
CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. HTML is
used to create web pages, CSS makes them look
pretty. CSS also controls how a website looks on a
desktop vs. a tablet vs. a phone.
Mobile Responsive
If a website is mobile responsive, it uses CSS to re-
spond to the size of the viewing screen so readers
have a pleasant user experience on their mobile de-
vice. That means font sizes are bigger plus the page
layout and navigation are transformed so they’re us-
able on a mobile device.
If you have to pinch and zoom to make anything read-
able, that is by definition not mobile friendly.
SSL
SSL stands for secure socket layer. An SSL certificate
encrypts data sent from a web server to your browser
so hackers can’t read it. If you see a little padlock in
the address bar of your web browser, that means
you’re visiting a secure website. A non-secure website
has a URL that begins with “http” in the address bar,
whereas a secure website begins with “https” — with
the “s” standing for “secure”.
http => hyper text transfer protocol
https => hyper text transfer protocol secure
NCWD charges $40 per year for an SSL certificate. For
more information, click here.
SEO
SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is a
large and complex topic, but in a nutshell it’s about
configuring your website to get free traffic from
search engine results pages (SERPs).
Based on my conversations with clients and prospec-
tive clients, there is massive confusion about what
SEO is and how it works — not to mention wildly un-
realistic expectations.
In order to get ranked in the organic search engine
listings, you need to produce content that:
•
Is super high quality.
•
People actually want.
•
People share or link to (linking to social media is a
great help).
•
is mobile friendly.
NCWD charges for the time it takes to put SEO on
your website.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service from Google that
gives you statistics about your website — how many
visitors your site is getting, which pages they’re view-
ing, how long they’re spending on each page, etc.
To use Google Analytics, all you do is install a small
tracking script on your website and you’re good to go.
Google Analytics removes the guesswork by giving
you data on what’s working on your website and what
isn’t.
NCWD charges for the time it takes to put Google
Analytics on your website (usually about 10 minutes
or so).
Email Service Provider (ESP)
An email service provider (aka EMS: email manage-
ment service) helps you build, manage and communi-
cate with your list of email subscribers.
A few examples of popular email service providers in-
clude MailChimp, Constant Contact, ConvertKit,
GetResponse and ActiveCampaign.
There are several reasons for using an email service
provider:
•
Automation. Users are able to add or remove
themselves from your list automatically. You can
also send emails automatically based on a user’s
actions.
•
Scalability. You can send a broadcast message to
hundreds or thousands of your subscribers with
the click of a mouse. It’s next to impossible to do
this manually.
•
Deliverability. Most email service providers are
white-listed so your emails don’t get flagged as
spam. If you tried to send more than a few dozen
emails in rapid fire succession using Outlook or
Gmail, it would most likely trigger a spam filter
with your ISP and your emails wouldn’t get sent.
•
Compliance. Stay compliant with the CAN-SPAM
Act and avoid penalties.
•
Reporting & Tracking. Find out what percentage of
people opened your email, how many people
clicked on a link in your email, which email subject
line performed the best, etc.
NCWD charges nothing for basic emails with up to
2GB of storage (just the time it takes to set up each
email). With each domain, you can have an unlimited
amount of emails. If you want to upgrade your email
to up to 50GB of storage, the charge is $6 per month.
BASIC ANATOMY OF A
WEBSITE
This is the top part of a website containing the logo
and usually (but not always) the site’s navigation
menu. The header is the zone at the top of the page
that stays constant and visible as visitors click around
your site.
Once upon a time the header was a place to display a
banner or graphic promoting your brand — kind of
like the cover photo on a Facebook page. But today’s
websites are more streamlined and the trend is to
just include your logo and navigation in the header.
Navigation (aka Navigation Bar or
Main Menu)
These are the links at the top of the page to help you
find what you’re looking for. The navigation links are
usually in the header or just below it.
On complex sites with tons of pages, you’ll sometimes
see a “mega menu” which is a drop-down menu trig-
gered by hovering over a link in the main navigation.
The drop-down mega menu then shows you many
links organized into categories and sub-categories,
kind of like a site-map.
Feature Image
This is the large image you see at the top of a web
page that grabs your attention and sets the tone for
the rest of the page. Feature images typically span the
full width of the page and often contain headlines or
calls to action.
Slider
A slider is used to display pictures … like a slideshow
… where the images slide from right to left or vice-
versa. Sliders can appear anywhere on a website, but
they’re commonly used on home pages in place of (or
in addition to) a feature image.
As websites evolve and more emphasis is placed on
page load speed as well as optimizing user experi-
ences on mobile devices, slider use is diminishing be-
cause they’re resource hogs and are often little more
than eye-candy.
Website Content
Website content is the information your visitors con-
sume. Web copy or body copy refers to written text.
Website content refers to all the elements used to
communicate your message - text, images, video,
audio, the whole shebang.
A sidebar is the narrow vertical column right next to
your website content. The sidebar often contains ad-
vertisements, links to other content, calls to action or
a search box. Think of the sidebar as secondary to
your primary website content.
In the past few years, there’s been a trend in website
design to eliminate the sidebar altogether and just go
with a single, full-width column to display your con-
tent. For some sites, eliminating the sidebar makes
sense, for others it does not. It really comes down to
personal preference and/or which layout (sidebar vs.
no sidebar) provides a better user experience or
higher conversion rate.
A footer performs the same function as the header —
it’s a region on a website that’s constant from page to
page — except a footer is at the bottom of a page in-
stead of the top.
You can put whatever you want in a footer. But what’s
often in the footer is contact info, privacy policy,
terms of use, sitemap, social media icons and links to
other important pages on your site.
Landing Page
When you run ads on Google or Facebook (or any-
where) you have to provide a destination page for the
person to land on when they click the ad — hence,
the name landing page.
Landing pages are a little different than other pages
on a website in that any distractions, such as a
header or footer or sidebar, are removed or
minimized.
The primary goal of a landing page is getting the visi-
tor to take an action (i.e. download a report, sign up
for an email list, make a purchase, etc) and maximize
conversions. You want the content on a landing page
to be as laser-focused as possible.
Home Page (or Homepage)
Also known as the front page or main page. This is
the starting point on most websites. A website design
best practice is to link your logo to your home page,
giving your visitors an “escape” or “reset” if they ever
get lost on your site.
Blog
A blog is actually a type of website.
So what’s the difference between a blog and a web-
site? Not much. It basically boils down to how the
content is structured and presented.
•
When you publish something on a blog it’s called a
post and blog posts are published in chronological
order like journal entries in a diary. The origin of
the word “blog” is a contraction of web log.
•
When you publish something on a website it’s
called a page and web pages are not presented se-
quentially. They’re just a collection pages (i.e.
homepage, about us page, contact page, etc) that
are linked together.
•
Blog posts allow for interactivity with readers via
comments. Standard web pages don’t have a com-
menting section.
•
Web pages are usually informational in nature
about a company’s products or services. They tend
to use a bit more formal and official sounding lan-
guage. Blog posts have a more casual and conver-
sational tone.
•
A blog can be a standalone website or it can be a
section of a larger website.
Call To Action (aka CTA)
Buttons, pop-ups, ribbons, slide-ins, email opt-in
boxes … even a simple text link … are all examples of
calls to action. A call to action is a specific and direct
request asking your visitor to do something.
If you want readers to take action, you need to gently
nudge them along.
When NCWD is having their initial consultation with a
new client, we always ask “What is the main purpose
of your website?” or “What do you want your website
readers to DO when they get to your website?” If the
answer is “order stuff from our online store - then we
will add a button that says CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE
STORE. If the answer is opt-in to our email list, then
we will have a form on the homepage.
Card Design (aka Tile Design or
Grid-Based Design)
Inspired by sites like Pinterest, card design helps you
organize (and sort) content visually by chunking your
data into a grid. Card design is visually appealing,
easy to read and mobile-friendly.
You can use card design for lots of things such as
image galleries, blog pages or showcasing
features/benefits on a sales page. The sky’s the limit.
All you need is a little creativity.
Veishea Grebin, Website & Graphic Designer
Northern Wisconsin.